1997-03-14; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 68
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
©1997 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
FRIDAY
March 14, 1997
14 pages
SGA proposes
doubling $5 fee
By Heather N. LaFave
LIFE Staff Writer	
Student Government
Association's interest in a 100
percent increase in the Student
Organization Fee was a topic of
discussion at the Student-
Trustees Liaison Committee
meeting Thursday.
Ibm Olver, committee member
and Bay City senior, said SGA's
research on Student Budget
Allocation Committee funds suggests the committee will not
have as much money available
next school year because there
will be little turn-over in funds
from this year.
Olver said SBAC, which
receives it funds from a levy on
the $5 per year Student
Organization Fee, has been
funding an increasing number of
programs. SBAC has no money
left right now, he said, and the
members don't meet anymore.
To remedy the lack of funding,
Olver said SGA is looking into
the  possibility  of doubling  the
student fee so that more money
can be put into bringing programs to the students.
"Access to experience is something I think students will
want," he said.
Board of Trustees' member Sid
Smith said the board needs to
consider ramifications of another
fee increase and look at whether
or not such an increase would be
of value to the students.
"If we have to pay a few extra
dollars, that's what we have to
do," Smith said.
However, he said maintaining
CMU's value to potential students is also important. Only one
school in Michigan charges less
than CMU, he said.
Lisa Diaz, SGA president and
East Lansing senior, said she
supports the idea of a fee
increase and said she will talk to
the students to find out what
they want.
"I am supportive of this from
seeing what other schools have
and wishing we could have the
Faculty discusses
inserting global
education at CMU
LIFE Staff Writer
LIFE Photo/Gabriel Guerrero
SGA member Beth Campbell, Pellston senior, addresses the
Student-Trustees Liason Committee about student concerns
Thursday night in the Bovee University Center President's Room.
same," Diaz said.
She said increasing SBAC's
funding would make more
money available to student organizations for programs, thereby
making it possible for students
to get more involved in extracurricular activities.
"I don't want to make anyone
not able to attend college," she
said.
An  SGA report  presented  to
the board states that SBAC will
have only $2,136 to allocate next
school year at the rate of the current fee. Last year, the committee had more than $62,000 in
funding, according to the report.
The Liaison Committee also
discussed the results of SGA's
Student Issues Survey with the
board.
See SGA Page 2
Ways for CMU to prepare students for an international business
world, including advocating language requirements for high school
students, were discussed Thursday at the Faculty-Trustees Liaison
Committee meeting.
The General Education Committee has been looking into what
CMU can do to incorporate global education into CMU's programs,
said Susan Conner, faculty committee member and chair of the history department.
Conner said the General Education Committee sees two main
areas for growth in global education: within the framework of the
Gen. Ed program, and in increasing the number of international
students.
She said one avenue for creating students who are ready to deal
with international situations could be to require high school students to take foreign language. However, for this to be an effective
means for expanding global education on the university level, other
schools should follow similar guidelines.
Students need to gain competency in dealing with the work in
terms other than their own cultures, she said.
"The world is a much smaller place than it used to be," she said.
Trustee Roger Kesseler said he isn't sure proficiency in foreign
language is that important.
See MEETING Page 2
Projects
highlighted
at exhibit
By Erik Mueller
LIFE Staff Writer
Displays of 29 faculty research and
technology projects were featured
Wednesday as part of the 11th annual
Faculty Creativity Day exhibition.
The exhibition, which took place in the
Bovee University Center, also highlighted the winners of the ^resident's and
provost's awards for outstanding
research, and awards for research excellence and research professorship.
"CU-SeeMe and I Phone," a videoconferencing project developed by Edward
Roberts, associate professor of foreign
languages, literatures and cultures and
Brigitte Bechtold, professor of economics, was one of the technology projects
featured.
The program will turn a residence hall
room into a classroom, Roberts said, by
eventually enabling students to use their
own computer, some software and the
Internet to link them to classes across
campus or across the world.
The cost for this system was the price
of the software and about $200 for a color
camera for the video conferencing,
Roberts said.
Jeffrey Grey, computer repair technician II for Computer Services, said the
classrooms of the future will be computerized, interactive forums without people
in the classroom.
"There could be 10 people actually in
the classroom and 40 people participating in the class through their computer, "
he said.
Roberts demonstrated the system by
conversing with a dean at a university in
Chile.
Conversing in Spanish, Roberts discussed the weather and the next video
conference with the dean in Chile.
While the men were talking, a moving
picture of the dean responding to
Roberts' questions was projected on a
movie screen. The audio transmissions
were instantaneous like phone conversations. The video projection was delayed
slightly and made the dean appear to
move in slow-motion.
LIFE Photo/Brandon Sullivan
Faculty Creativity Day — Sarah Delia, Mount Pleasant resident, looks over a display of books published by Central
Michigan University's faculty members Wednesday afternoon at the Faculty Research and Creativity Day in the U.C. Bovee
Conference Center.
Grey said new technology will be able
to send audio, video, and data transmission through the phone lines more than
10 times faster than the current rate of
10 megabytes per second. Two or more
people could carry on video conferencing
just as if they were speaking face to face.
"It would be just like Star Trek. The
conversations will look just like when
the captain speaks to aliens on his video
monitor," he said.
CMU has already contacted universities in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands
and Chile to develop video conferencing
between students and faculty.
Grey said Pearee, Woldt, Rowe and
Foust halls and Park Library are slated
eventually have video conferencing systems.
John Monahan, professor of psychology, displayed three computer
screens containing moving shapes and colors in
a different project titled
"Improving Perceptual
Demonstrations."
Monahan said the
system is supposed to
improve the quality of
classroom perceptual demonstrations.
According to Monahan, perceptual
demonstrations test how the brain reacts
to organization and from perceptions
based on movement and other factors.
He said introducing this program to
his students will teach him what parts of
his research project will and will not be
BEEHR
effective for testing
visual perception.
The exhibition concluded with an awards
presentation.
Four faculty members received CMU's
most prestigious
awards for their outstanding research and
creative activity.
University   President
Leonard       Plachta       presented       the
President's Awards to Terry Beehr, professor    of    psychology,    and    William
Browne, professor of political science.
The President's Awards recognize the
BROWNE
See PROJECTS Page 2
INS  IDE
Three students plan to petition administration
By Julia Jones
LIFE Staff Writer
Two students at CMU and one
Mid-Michigan Community
College student are planning to
petition the university saying
the administration has misused
funds from student tuition.
Todd Cowles, Grand Rapids
sophomore, said the purpose of
the petition is "to bring awareness to the students."
He said CMU students are
conservative and historically do
not  protest  the  actions  of the
administration.
Cowles, Nick Morehead, South
Haven sophomore, and Lucas
Rice from MMCC, who plans to
attend CMU next year, copied
200 fliers entitled "CMU Reality"
and posted them around campus. The fliers cite examples of
misuses of funds and give information about the petition.
They will circulate campus all
next week asking students to
sign a petition saying they are
aware of the administration's
misuse of funds and are willing
to stand up to it.
Associate Vice President of
Public Relations and Marketing
Rae Goldsmith said, "Certainly
these individuals have the right
to circulate a petition, but we
would encourage students to
make sure they have a full
understanding of the facts and
issues prior to signing their
names to anything."
Cowles gave examples of misuse of funds including the $28.7
million addition c__to the
Student  Activity   Center,   new
signs for the Bovee University
Center, new awnings for the
Towers, a $100,000 administrative assistant for President
Plachta and a $19,000 raise for
President Plachta.
Goldsmith said the new athletics complex will benefit all students, not just athletes. Part of
the funding will go to the relocation and upgrading of intramural fields which are used by all
students, and appropriate facili-
See PETITION Page 2
College
within
reach for
disabled
■ Kincaid said since '89
total number of disabled
has quadrupled at CMU
By Julia Jones
LIFE Staff Writer	
Jeanne Kincaid, due
process special education
hearing officer for the
state of New Hampshire,
believes higher educational
goals are within reach for disabled students.
Kincaid spoke to approximately 100 people about compliance issues of the American
Disabilities Act as part of a
"Breakfast        With" series
Thursday morning. The program was rescheduled from
October when Kincaid was
unable to attend. "She was well
worth waiting for," said director
of the Multicultural
Programming Ulana
Klymyshyn.
Kincaid said, eight years ago,
CMU had 60 disabled students.
Today, that number has reached
240. Kincaid said those numbers reflect good effort in the K-
12 area. She said there is now a
higher vision for disabled students. They are looking toward
higher education.
Kincaid said the ADA reaches
out to all areas of campus life,
including career courses, social
life, and field placement.
Kincaid said accessibility is
the most difficult compliance
issue. "We should welcome people with a disability who keep
us honest."
She said it was important for
a campus to be fully accessible
to people with disabilities.
Kincaid said offices have
tightened their policies on
another compliance issue, documentation. "We have an obligation to make sure documentation of a disability is quality. We
want to make sure people are
really entitled."
Kincaid said many places use
the three-year rule, which
requires people with disabilities
and who request accommodations, to have documentations
that are less than three years
old.
Kincaid said field placement
and internships must be made
accessible. For some employers
this may be their first time
working with a disabled person.
She encouraged the use of the
ADA as a marketing tool.
"It will really help employers
See VISION Page 2	
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